Cornelia, Mother from the Gracchi, Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures
ca. 1785
Angelica Kauffmann
(Swiss, active in England and Italia. 1741 &#8211 1807)
Oil on canvas
40 x 50 in
101.60 x 127.00 cm
Assortment of the Virginia Museum of proper Arts
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Johnson Fund
75.22

Graduated pupils may enter a course of study like a terminal MA student, being an MA/PhD student who’ll complete both levels at VCU, or like a PhD student that has already completed an MA at VCU or elsewhere.

MA/PhD and PhD students develop a major along with a minor field of study within the following regions of faculty expertise:

• Contemporary and modern Art
• Nineteenth-century European and British Art
• German Art and Historiography
• African, Black, and African Diasporic Art
• Museum Studies

There’s two curriculum concentrations within the MA program: historic studies, and museum studies. Each concentration provides students having a general background within the research methods and teachings of art history, and equips them for careers in arts and cultural institutions that need an MA degree. Each concentration also prepares students for that more rigorous research demands from the PhD, the needed degree for academic and curatorial careers.

MA students complete their programs of study by 50 percent years (four semesters), which culminate within the submission of the qualifying paper carried out consultation having a faculty consultant.

Within the first semester, a lot of students develop a course in art historiography and methodology, which supplies an important foundation for embarking upon research relevant to the present condition of the selected section of study.

Vessel by means of enthusiast with Owl Mask

200 B.C. &#8211 A.D. 200
Peruvian, Moche
(fourth century B.C. &#8211 3rd century A.D.)
Terracotta with polychrome slips
8.75 x 5 x 6.875 in.
Assortment of the Virginia Museum of proper Arts
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sandford G. Etherington
84.87

Within the second semester, students develop a course in art background and pedagogy, that they explore various philosophies and contemporary practices within the teaching of art history in academic and museum contexts. This program prepares students to educate college-level art history, facilitate museum tours and programs, and create a teaching portfolio.

Throughout the third semester, students develop a writing seminar, that they are immersed while preparing the work they do for academic publication (including problems with , publication submissions, and standards for review and professional success). For Museum Studies students, the qualifying paper may depend on an art gallery project completed throughout a previous semester.

While finishing these needed courses,

• students within the historic studies concentration complete 6 workshops (18 credits) in art history, with a minumum of one seminar in every of two categories—period/regional and thematic
• museum studies students complete 2 museum studies workshops (6 credits), an art gallery internship (3 credits), and three workshops in art history (9 credits)

This program needs could be carried out 2 years—with full-time enrollment in three semesters and part-time enrollment within the 4th semester.

Some students opt to join additional, non-needed graduate courses throughout the 4th semester. These optional electives could be in art history, museum studies, non-profit management, or any other departments highly relevant to students’ interests and professional goals.

Additionally to coursework, each MA student demonstrates the capability to translate art historic literature from the language highly relevant to his/her research into British. This requirement is finished throughout the first semester of coursework, where students may opt to join the departmental course on German for Art History Research.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880 &#8211 1938)
Six Dancers (Sechs Tnzerinnen)
1911
oil on canvas
37 x 49 in
The Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection, Bequest of Anne R. Fischer 2009.171

The PhD program offers two curriculum concentrations: historic studies and curatorial. Both concentrations require a minimum of 30 course credits past the MA degree and culminate inside a dissertation which makes an authentic, significant contribution towards the candidate’s major field of study. Time to degree, ideally four years beyond finishing the MA, varies based on the nature of dissertation research. For instance, some students’ research includes extended worldwide fieldwork or visit archives and collections.

In the PhD level, historic studies students complete as many as 5 art history workshops (12 credits), while curatorial students complete 2 art history workshops (6 credits), an art gallery internship (3 credits), along with a course in non-profit management or education research methods (3 credits).

All PhD students develop a minor and major field of study, each of which should be within an specialization one of the full-time faculty (in the above list). The main field requires completing 3 courses as the minor field requires 2 courses, most of which might be completed throughout the MA program of study. Students demonstrate mastery of the fields in field exams, completed in the finish from the semester that they sign up for 6 course credits of field exam preparation.

Additionally to coursework and field exams, all PhD students complete 3 credits in dissertation prospectus, and 6 dissertation credits. Additionally they demonstrate the capability to translate art historic literature from two other languages into British, one of these might be achieved while finishing the MA degree.

More in depth details about the MA and PhD programs of study is supplied within the graduate manual.